Slimy Money!

        Before David and Maura Reza hand out the $5 weekly allowance to their children, David reads a scripture from the Bible about money.  This is a shift for the family which has retreated from what Maura Reza calls years of “self-spending.”  Now they have turned to a higher power for managing their budget: the world of biblical financial planning.
        Their 5 children gather around the dining room table to listen to their dad then light up when mom walks in with the cash.  “The important thing to remember is that all of this,” David Reza says, as he opens his arms wide gesturing to everything in the house, “belongs to God.”  It may not belong to the Reza’s much longer because the family is in danger of losing their 5 bedroom, 2,900 S.F. home.  Even if they do, they believe their faith will help them with their finances.
        The Reza family turned to their church for help to climb out of their debt.  Courses on biblical financial planning, how to get out of debt, and saving and tithing are now begin offered at many churches these days.  These programs teach tithing to God must be first. Before, the Reza family gave sporadically to God, but now they give about $300 a month to their church.  “What we have given we’ve gotten back in blessings,” said Maura Reza.  (The Sacramento Bee, July 29, 2008; Faithful find fiscal salvation in church; pg. 1, by Jennifer Garza)
        And yes, it is amazing how absolutely true the Word of God is. It teaches us how to be saved, blessed, healed, get out of debt, and how to turn a bad situation into a positive one.    God’s word tells the reason people are suffering and doing without, which is always conducive to disobedience.  If people will pay attention to the Word of God then implement it, the blessings will rain down on them.
        God is not a man that is able to lie because He is the absolute truth.  His one and only desire is to bless us, but He will not and cannot bless disobedience.  God says, “Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:8-12).  If we will obey God’s Word and meet His conditions He will bless us right out of our socks.
        The problem with too many is they want the blessings of God without participating with God.  God wants His people to cooperate with Him so they can say, “The Lord has blessed me!  He has turned gloom into boom!”  I am not talking about some Wall Street gamble or some get rich quick scheme.  This has everything to do with integrity in God’s Word.  Yes, it is just simple faith that God can do anything.  And in this economy, many people, like the Reza family are finding out that it is better to give than to be a selfish tight-wad.  It is true: you can’t beat God giving no matter how you may try.  He will turn your curse into a huge blessing.

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